The Breaker Upperers duo Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek star in an irreverent comedy about two women who, after discovering they were being two-timed by the same man, form the Breaker Upperers, a small-time business breaking up couples for cash.

“I got to thinking about the level of dread people have when they realize they have to break up with their partner and then I thought it’s not a fun thought but I thought it would be funny if you could give that responsibility to somebody else,” said van Beek who, along with Sami, made a visit to the Deadline Studio after the SXSW premiere of their film.

Simply put: “It’s the opposite of like empathy,” added Sami. “It seemed like the perfect premise for a comedy.”

“Both of us have been good friends with Taika for a long time. I went to high school with him. We’ve done lots of projects with him,” said van Beek, who starred in Waititi’s 2014 horror comedy, What We Do in the Shadows.